All's Fair in Love and Showbusiness
by TVH Bookfan
Summary: In the 1980s, aspiring actress/comedian Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters are looking for success in showbusiness, but how far will they go when they meet some charming but unusual suitors?
1. Chapter 1

**Here's my new story! Just to let you know, it will start out as being really funny but will then contain some more serious parts (including some more mature content than in my last story). There are also some name changes on account of it taking place in more modern times, which you'll notice as you read the story. As always, please review to let me know if I'm doing a good job.**

It is a universally acknowledged truth that a former actress will do whatever it takes to get her daughters into showbusiness with the hope that they will be more successful than she was.

Isabella Portillo Bennet had obtained a small amount of fame in the 1950s when she stared in a low budget film called _The Lonely Lover_, which gained some success when it was released in 1953 on account of the attention it obtained from directors and producers who had created infamous but banned movies. She stared in two other films called _Singing the Night Away_ in 1954 and _Innocent Women_ a year later.

However, her career turned out being very short. In 1956, she became involved in a scandal when she was caught trying to seduce a producer when she was visiting Beverly Hills. Although they didn't have intercourse and Isabella later apologized for the incident, no one would hire her anymore. So she had to go back to her home on the south side of Chicago, where she later married Tom Bennet, had five daughters, and worked mainly as a secretary for a modest but still low salary.

But despite all this, Mrs. Bennet vowed that each of her daughters were going to become successful actresses. From the moment her first daughters Jane and Elizabeth were born, she had them dressed nicely and took them out to see theater productions where babies were allowed. When they were toddlers, instead of playing with dolls, they had to act out given situations ( such as being angry about a lost toy) in front of their mother, and instead of reading books like _The Cat in the Hat_, they read books like _Romeo and Juliet for Young Readers_ and any simple scripts their mother could find. When they entered school, any extracurricular activity they were involved in had something to do with acting: school plays, drama club, improv sessions for beginners, etc. However, when Mrs. Bennet realized any particular talents her girls had,( like Jane's singing and Lindsay's dancing), she had them join choir and take ballet classes, as long as they would use those skills to improve their chances of becoming actresses. So this was the early life of Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Katie, and Lindsay Bennet.

It wasn't until 1984 that the girls got their first big break. Since Elizabeth and Jane had a reputation of being funny in their performances, they were discovered in a new workshop/comedy club called Little City, which recieved support Chicago's the Second City. The young women( who were twenty and twenty-one at the time) happily accepted. However, Mrs. Bennet was not happy.

"Jane, Lizzie, do you two have any idea what you're getting yourselves into?"

"Yes, mom. We just got our first jobs in acting!" exclaimed Elizabeth.

"Comedy and acting are two very different things. An _actress_ is respected, appears on the covers of magazines, and wins Oscars. A _comedian _is just a stupid and silly person who gets paid millions of dollars for fooling around on stage and doing ridiculous movies like that National Lampoon trash. No one really likes comedians, they just like laughing at them when they have trouble sleeping on Saturday nights."

"Mom, a lot of respected actresses have done comedy. Just because we start out like this dosen't mean we can't win Oscars," said Jane, who loved keeping the peace.

"Yeah, Isabella. Just let them do this," said Mr. Bennet, who thought everything that his wife did was ridiculous.

Mrs. Bennet sighed. "All right, but don't come crying to me when you careers are over."

Little did Elizabeth and Jane know how much their lives were going to change, both professionally and romantically.


	2. Chapter 2

**A big thank you to everyone who's following , reviewing, or added this story as a favorite :) I hope you enjoy the rest of it.**

In March of 1985, the popular Canadian actors and screenwriters William Darcy and Charlie Bingley were traveling first class on an airplane with the goal of starting a new variety show on cable. The two were complete opposites. Will Darcy (who was also going to be the show's executive producer) was very organized, reserved around company, and a little arrogant. Charlie, on the other hand, was the very definition of a comedian: he was always goofing around, making humorous and sometimes inappropriate remarks to everyone he met, and got along with almost everyone he met. He was familiar with every American comedian ( and had even met some of them) and whenever anyone asked him what his ultimate goal was, he always said: "To become the next Chevy Chase." But despite their differences, they were best friends, loved working in the comedy field, and were very devoted to their sisters, Candice Bingley and Georgina Darcy, who were also going with them on their trip.

"How much longer before we get to Chicago, Will?" asked Charlie when they had been in the plane for fifteen minutes.

"About six hours, and that's just the minimum," answered Will.

Candice sighed. "I hate airplanes, Charlie. Why couldn't we just take one of those trains in Toronto that can get to the states within one day?"

"Candy, you complained about them the last time we traveled. It's much more lovely to travel in a plane. You can see the top of mountains and buildings, and in a train, you can't get a message from one of those babes who will…"

"Charlie! People can hear you with that loud voice of yours," said Will, already getting embarrassed.

"What? It wasn't as if I was going to say a dirty joke in front of Candice and Georgina."

"Oh, come on. I'm twenty-two now, and Georgina is seventeen, so it's not like we're kids. And besides, you've been telling those jokes in front of me since I learned to talk. There's no need to censor yourself," said Candice.

Georgina, who was usually shy, said, "I think it's best if he did every once in a while."

"Anyway, are we going to be looking for already famous actors or new ones?" asked Charlie, changing the subject.

"I already told you that there's no famous actor who wants to work with us. Everyone you've suggested either already has a successful career or is no longer in showbusiness. We need new actors, and I think Little City is where we're going to find them.

"Why not at the Second City?"

"If we had been doing this show ten years ago, then that would have been an option. But it's the eighties. People don't find the stuff from all those shows from the seventies funny anymore. There seems to be more of a focus on family nowdays, with shows like _The Cosby Show_ and _Family Ties_. One thing I've of doing is hiring a group of brothers or sisters."

"You've already got me and Candice."

"Yeah, but we need more."

All of a sudden, the plane kept moving up and down like a roller coaster. Everyone started screaming and some people even vomited. "What the hell is going on?" yelled Will.

"Is the pilot a madman or something?" yelled Candice.

"We're not in the movie _Airplane_ to have something like this going on!" exclaimed Charlie.

As quickly as it happened, it was all over very soon.

"It's going to be all right. The pilot nearly fell asleep, that's all," said a stewardess with a French Canadian accent.

"That's it!? He could have killed us all!" said Will furiously.

"I'm taking a train next time," declared Candice.

Charlie saw this as an opportunity. _"Excusez- moi, Mademoiselle_?" he said.

"_Qu'est que voulez-vous?"_ asked the stewardess.

"Me and Will here come from one of the richest families in Toronto. Will you do us a favor?"

"What, Monsieur?"

"I'll give you all the wine and _chocolat _you want if you let us sue the pilot." And he winked at her. The stewardess would not buy it. "I already have a boyfriend in Montreal, Monsieur. I have no need for sex with crazy _petits garcons comme vous."_ She then left.

"Charlie, what did I tell you?" said Will, already frustrated with everything that just happened.

"Yeah, don't mess with girls. I just wanted to do her a favor."

Candice and Georgina grinned, knowing well that when it came to women, everything was a joke for Charles Bingley.


	3. Chapter 3

Seven O'clock. As usual, Elizabeth and Jane were ready an hour before their parents were to start work. To make things even better, today was the day when a Canadian TV staff was coming to hire actors for the new cable channel, the PN (Pemberly Network). Everyone at Little City knew the roles would go to them, but they never actually said it in front of them.

"Lizzie, are you ready?" asked Jane.

"Of course I am. All those weeks of rehearsal couldn't have been for nothing. No words, the act will say it all."

At that moment, in walked Lindsay, and what she was wearing was shocking: a sleeveless shirt that showed off her belly, one of those very short miniskirts, and high heels that were used by women who went out long after midnight.

"Lindsay! Take that off now!" yelled Jane.

"Why? They always dress like this in the magazines."

"I don't even think Madonna would dress like that for school. It's completely inappropriate," said Elizabeth.

"No. I look like a real actress."

"If by actress you mean a porn star," said Katie, who was a year older than her sixteen-year-old sister and had always been jealous of her because of the attention she got from her mother.

"An actress would get all her clothes from acclaimed designers, and you only got that from an acclaimed department store," said Mary, who was nineteen. Of all the sisters, she was the least successful in acting. Her true talent was writing, whether it was a story or a screenplay. Although her sisters were fully aware of this, they never told their mother, whose expectations regarding her daughter's acting skills were too high.

Of course, it wasn't too long before their mother walked in. "Lindsay, you can wear that for practice, but not at school. They'd probably expel you if you wore that."

Since Lindsay always listened to her mother, she smiled sweetly and said, "You know best, mom" as she walked out of the living room.

"I can just see her walking up on that stage, thinking her mother for her successful career, which you girls will never get a chance to do considering the field you're going into," Mrs. Bennet said, looking almost disgustedly at Elizabeth and Jane.

"We might, if we win an Emmy," said Elizabeth.

"Winning an Emmy is nothing in comparison to winning an Oscar, and you get more recognition for it."

Mr. Bennet, who just walked in, said, "Another day, another scheme of yours to deal with, Isabella."

"Tom, don't you even care about how your daughters are throwing away a perfect opportunity?"

"The way I see it, they're taking complete advantage of it."

"Being in a silly little cable show is not going to make them real actresses!"

"Goodbye, Jane and Elizabeth, and good luck to you both. I've got to get to work." And without a word of goodbye to his wife, he left to do his job delivering mail.

Jane and Elizabeth left shorly after, not wanting to be a minute late.


	4. Chapter 4

As usual, Will Darcy and his companions arrived to Chicago at the expected time. After a heated argument with the pilot followed a couple of compromises after finding out that the pilot was going through an illness, they decided not to press charges. The stewardess even agreed to having Charlie buy her a breakfast tea. With a hotel booked and a description of Little City's five years of training actors and comedians, Will and Charlie were able to start the auditions.

The first person to audition was a woman who claimed to "Have a natural ability to bring Shakespeare into the twentieth century" reading a terrible reinterpretation of the balcony scene from _Romeo and Juliet_, which included lines like, "Romeo, my darling, who do you think you are, some pervert hiding under my castle with your three girlfriends?" and, "Roses are so sweet, that I'd like you even if that were your name, but of course, you probably wouldn't like me, since you'd like..." Immediately as she started saying that, Will shouted, "Next!"

The next was an "aspiring" singer who started singing many romantic songs at different times, including "The Way We Were" and "All Through the Night", and it was immediately noticed that she was tone-deaf. This time, Charlie spoke, saying, "You may be pretty enough to be Miss America, but not good enough to sing or even funny enough to act. I bet everyone would become deaf hearing that voice."

But the worse audition of all came from a black man who decided to do a Michael Jackson impersonation. He tried to do the moonwalk with the song "Billie Jean" and he turned out to have no dancing skills at all, making it seem as if he making rather inappropriate moves. Then, he fell off the stage, landing on one of Will's assistances named Harold. No one was injured, but it was a definite no and left Will and Charlie very frustrated.

"Damn it, Will! You said that people at Little city have talent, but so far, they're worse than some of Toronto's most terrible comedians. We should look somewhere else instead," complained Charlie.

"Maybe I should be in charge of auditions instead. I could certainly give them a piece of my mind," said Candice, who just walked in with Georgina.

"The last time you gave a piece of your mind, it almost resulted in a lawsuit against Pemberley studios," said Will, refuring to an incident in which Candice used more of the ten words that couldn't be said on television than were necessary in a monologe insulting Americans. There were so much angry phone calls from American visitors to Canada and a protest outside the studio, that their variety show was almost canceled.

"I'm nowhere near as controversial as Charlie," was her response. This was true. Charlie was always writing inappropriate sketches for the show's actors, guests, and hosts, which usually involved a lot of swear words, rude remarks, and sometimes even political incorrectness. It was part of the reason why they decided to move their show to the states.

Georgina interrupted them by saying, "You have a group of two sisters auditioning now, Will."

And at that moment, Will forgot all about the problems with auditions. Two young women stood before them, and the shorter one had some of the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen: large, green ones that smiled down at anyone she looked at, This, combined with her auburn hair, reminded him of... _No_, he thought to himself. _I can't think about the past anymore. It has been three years ago now. I can't be with anyone who reminds me of her. I can't fall in love again, not after_..."

"Hey Will, what's with you right now?" asked Charlie. His eyes were on the tallest woman, but when he saw the one who caught his friend's attention, he said,"Wow. She looks just like..."

"Not now, Charlie. We have business to take care of."


	5. Chapter 5

**If you're wondering who Elizabeth reminds Darcy of, it will be revealed throughout the story starting with small details. It's a very sad and creepy story and will have a huge effect on Lizzie and Will's relationship as well those of other characters (I won't spoil it). So keep reading to find out.**

Elizabeth couldn't help staring at William Darcy. For someone who had worked in comedy for about ten years (since the age of seventeen, as a matter of fact), he seemed so serious. He was staring at her as if he just saw a ghost. The other man was blond, seemed a lot more cheerful, and had his eyes on Jane, who smiled and gave him a friendly wave (guys were always falling for Jane, but she preferred to take it easy when it came to relationships. As far as Elizabeth knew, she had only had sex with one of her many boyfriends). Mr. Darcy quickly regained focus and said, "What are your names?"

"I'm Elizabeth and this is my older sister, Jane," Elizabeth responded.

"All right. Give us whatever you've got," Darcy said, looking bored.

Elizabeth and Jane started their popular skit. Not a single word was said, but the actions spoke for themselves. It started with Elizabeth calling a boyfriend on a toy phone. Throughout the phone call, she made all sorts of flirtatious faces and gestures. At one point, she even blew a kiss to no one in particular, and it got to the point where she was French kissing the phone. As this happened, a furious Jane walked in and slapped her. She acted as if she were yelling at her, shaking her fingers and pointing to the phone. She then took out a picture of the man who was supposed to be her boyfriend (it actually was a picture of an ex of hers), which Elizabeth started kissing, indicating that Jane's boyfriend was cheating on her. She then yanked the picture away from her and ripped it to shreds. As soon as the shreds were all over the floor, she stomped her foot all over them as if they were ants. The skit ended with Jane picking the shreds up and throwing them all over Elizabeth, who made angry faces and kept pointing to herself, indicating that her boyfriend would always be hers and Jane was now left with nothing When it was over, the two sisters bowed and said, "That was an original skit created by us."

"That was the best act we've seen all day," said Darcy.

" Yeah. Comparing that with butchering Shakespeare and Barbra Streisand and a terrible moonwalk dance, that was great," said Bingley.

"So, are we in?" asked Jane.

"You're not just in; you two are the first people who will be casted in our show," Bingley responded. Then, as if she was a close friend, he put his arms around Jane. "The world's going to love you! Or at least everyone in the states who has cable."

"Are you two really Canadian?" asked Elizabeth.

"We come from some of the richest families in showbusiness in Canada. The name's Charlie Bingley, writer and comedian." Then, looking at Mr. Darcy, he said, "If you want, you two could join us for lunch. Our sisters Candice and Georgina would love to meet you." Georgina, who had her brother's dark brown hair and gray eyes, smiled at them, but Candice, who shared Charlie's blond hair and blue eyes and hated seeing him get other women's attention, had a look of jealousy.

"If you want, you can all go out together. I have work to do," Darcy responded, looking strangely at Elizabeth.

"Oh, come on, Will! Have a little fun once in a while," said Charlie, trying to persuade him to join them.

"Not with her around," he said pointing to Elizabeth. "Every time we're with women, it's like we're on a date for you, Charlie. You know perfectly well how I am around girls."

"Who says we're on a date? Everything between us has to be strictly business. I have no interest in being in a relationship with you," said Elizabeth, insulted by the way Mr. Darcy was talking about her.

"Excuse me, but I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to Charlie," said Darcy.

"Excuse me, but I think you're being extremely rude," exclaimed Elizabeth. Jane looked just as mad as her sister, Georgina was already walking toward Charlie, getting ready to leave with all the others, and even Candice looked insulted by Mr. Darcy's remarks.

"Well, Will, since you obviously don't know how to treat a lady, I'll go out with them," said Charlie, frowning at his friend. "Come on, everyone. Let's go." And they all left, leaving Will Darcy alone.


	6. Chapter 6

Within a few minutes, the group went to a fancy restaurant downtown. The food included cuisine from all over the world, but consisted of mainly Italian, French, and Chinese dishes because they were the most requested. At one corner, a man was playing Mozart on a large, antique piano. Elizabeth and Jane were impressed. This was one of the places their mother would take them when they were little using whatever was left over from her salary after paying for acting lessons in an attempt to introduce them to "high society". One of these places was run by hippies who offered Mrs. Bennet a joint, which outraged her. "I'm a former actress, not a hippie!" they remembered her yelling at them. After that, their days of attending fancy restaurants were over. "If mom had ever discovered this place, we'd be completely broke by now," joked Jane.

"Who are your parents?" asked Charlie.

"Our mom was once an actress," Elizabeth found herself saying. She usually avoided telling this to men as soon as they met, but this guy was supposedly very rich. As dignified as she was, she didn't want to admit right away that they simply came from a working class family and an overly ambitious mother.

"On TV or the movies?" asked Georgina excitedly.

"She stared in some rather controversial films for the time. Not really x rated movies, but movies with a lot of sensuality. A lot of getting in bed and taking baths with men," said Jane uncomfortably.

They noticed that Charlie was trying really hard not to laugh. After a while, he said, "Well, that stuff was pretty much on the no list back in the forties and fifties. My father and Will's were founders of one of the first Canadian TV channels. By the time we were both seventeen, we were starting out in show business."

"What did you do," asked Elizabeth.

"We started out in a show called_ Teenage Comedians, _and in 1977, the network started a variety show called _Pemberly On Friday Nights_. It quickly became the most popular variety show in Canada."

"Cool. But what's wrong with your friend? Does he hate being with women that much?" asked Elizabeth, still mad about what happened.

"Poor Will just never had it easy despite being rich. When he was little, his dad was an alcoholic and sleeping with every woman he worked for, and his mother got back at him by spending as much money as possible on useless things. Will was pretty much Georgina's care taker from the beginning. But just when his parents started turning their lives around, they died in a car accident a month before PFN started."

"That's terrible," said Elizabeth and Jane at the same time. And when they thought of their own disfunctional parents, they especially understood. "I pretty much never knew my parents. All I ever knew was Will and the Bingleys," said Georgina sadly.

"But then it all got worse," said Candice. "Will met this girl named Elena on the show, and..."

"Candice, don't go that far," warned Charlie.

"Who was Elena?" asked Elizabeth curiously.

"She was Will's girlfriend. She died of cancer in 1982, but there's more to that story than it seems," explained Charlie, already regretting telling them. Then, a waiter arrived, and the conversation was finished.

Tom Bennet had a very dull life. As a boy, he spend his days collecting coins, reading classics, and listening to his parent's stories of Irish folktales. Now, if not putting up with his wife's crazy schemes or delivering mail, he simply read the newspaper or _Time_ magazine. He couldn't drink alcohol without getting sick, had no interest in sports, and with his wife's spending habits, could not afford to gamble, so he almost never spend time with other men. However, he had always wanted to see the world: London,Paris, the Amazon Rainforest, tropical islands, even China. But his wife had no interest in this. Her number one goal was to have each of her daughters win an Oscar. Almost everything she earned went toward expanding their "future careers". It was all silly to him. The way he saw, Jane and Elizabeth were the only ones with any talent for acting, but Isabella saw their interest in comedy as "stupid and useless". If there was anything that was stupid and useless, it was those films Isabella did back in the fifties. They were nothing but a bunch of sensual melodrama, but his wife thought they were unappreciated classics.

Making sure he had everything packed off, he left a letter to his family. He hoped Jane and Elizabeth would be the first to see it. Perhaps they would be more understanding toward what he was going to do. He loved them, as well as his youngest daughters, despite their silliness(especially Lindsay, who was becoming just like her mother), but he knew one thing for sure: he no longer loved their mother and probably never did. Their marriage meant nothing to her, and if she wasn't even interested in at least talking to him before going to work, then neither was he. The plan was simple: spend six months in Europe and file for divorce as soon as he got home. Everything else that followed was of no importance to him.

With one last look at his small house, he got on his car and left to the airport.


	7. Chapter 7

**Please sent more reviews. I would really appreciate it :)**

Jane and Elizabeth were the first ones to arrive home after Mr. Bennet left. When they found the note, they thought it was simply saying that he left because he was going to the library or grocery shopping (their mother almost never did this), but instead, it said this:

Dear Family,

I don't know how you'll react to this, but I just have to say it: I'm not happy with my marriage or my life here, so I shall divorce Isabella and spend six months in Europe. Girls, don't think that this is your fault. It's all because of your mother. She never had any interest in my happiness or maintaining family stability. Ever since I met, her only concern was having her children become the stars that she never became. At first, I thought it was just a phase, that she would allow you all to simply pursue acting as a hobby, but I was wrong. More than twenty years have gone by, and your mother still won't give up on that silly dream of hers. Jane and Elizabeth, I wish you good luck on that show you two plan to be in, and don't give it up because your mother wants you to become "real" actresses. Mary, if you don't want to be an actress, then please tell her. It does no good to just sit there and let someone control your life for you. As for Katie and Lindsay, don't become Isabella Bennet. You're both too young to know if you'll make it in show business, and if all fails, it's best to move on than act as if it's still going to happen. As for you, Isabella, know that I never truly loved you. If I married you, it was because I never thought I thought I would never get another marriage proposal. I've spend the past twenty-five years dealing with your schemes, but I won't do it anymore. I'm going to travel around, as I've always wanted to do, and I want you to simply become part of the past.

Goodbye to you all:

Thomas Bennet

"I can't believe it! He's actually leaving because of mom," exclaimed Jane in shock.

"Somehow, it doesn't surprise me, Jane. When we were little, I always knew our parents were different. They never talked to each other, they never went out together, they didn't even sleep together. I just wonder why he chose to leave now," said Elizabeth.

"You're right, but he never actually said he was unhappy with us. He may have never interacted much with mom, but he was always cheerful around us, or at least when we were little. Now he ignores us most of the time. Maybe that's it, Lizzie. Now that we're older, he thinks we could handle a divorce," responded Jane.

Elizabeth nodded. What else could she say? That old fear of hers had become a reality: their father left the family. Things would never be the same again.

"That bastard! Leaving me without telling me about it first!" was Mrs. Bennet's reaction when she arrived home with the other girls.

"You saw the letter, mom. He said it was all your fault, and I think I agree with it," said Elizabeth.

" My fault? Your father never did anything for this family! I was the one who gave you girls everything you needed: your acting lessons, those summer training camps, singing and dance classes, even your first communions were all my doing. If it had been up to your father, you girls would have become nothing."

"We became something because we helped ourselves, mom! You had nothing to do with," said the usually gentle Jane.

"Enough, girls. If this divorce nonsense does go on, I'm going to need a good lawyer. At least I don't need to pay anything for you, Lindsay. You're going to tour with the Illinois High School Theater Group for free. You heard that everyone? Lindsay got selected for the summer tour! Her career is just getting started!" she said this while giving Jane and Elizabeth a look.

"Mom, we got selected for the show," announced Elizabeth.

Isabella rolled her eyes. "Oh yes. You get to join another televised circus. As if all those foul comedians they discovered back in the seventies on that NBC show weren't enough for the world, now they have to have it on cable. Good luck to you. Let's hope no one in that show dies of an overdose…"

"Mom! That's enough! Stop insulting us for what we chose to do with our lives. The show starts in June, and as soon as we get our first paychecks, we're leaving," exclaimed Jane.

"Fine, go ahead. If everyone in this house chooses to leave, then I'm fine with it. But as long as I've got you here Lindsay, I'll be happy. Sometimes I think you'll be the only one here who'll truly become famous. If your sisters get recognized, it will only be for a short amount of time and most likely in infamy, since no one really likes comedians."

"Of course, mom. I only aim to please you," said Lindsay, full of pride in being her mother's favorite.


	8. Chapter 8

She was getting closer, but seemed so far away at the same time. Will kept trying to reach the hand of Elizabeth, but all he could feel was air when he managed to touch her. Then, after a long silence, she said, "You betrayed me, Will. Go away." But this wasn't Elizabeth's voice. It was too soft, and it sounded as if she were crying. It took him a while to realize that this was Elena's voice, what she had said to him after he cheated on her years ago. Before she left him for Wickham…

She then vanished, and all that was left was thick air.

Will woke up with a start. This couldn't be happening. Elizabeth Bennet with just another young woman looking for her big break. He had to stop thinking of her as if she were Elena. It was no use. It was just going to haunt him, whether awake or asleep, and prevent him from having good relationships with women.

"Will, are you okay?" It was Georgina, who was sleeping on a bed next to him in a hotel room.

"Yes. I was just having a very strange dream."

"Do you think I should go back to Canada? Aunt Catherine can't stay mad at me forever."

"Georgina, I think it's best that you stay with us for now. What happened to you is something that she could never understand. We know it wasn't your fault, but word has been getting around for months. With Wickham's reputation in Canada, who do you think the country is going to believe? It's just too much for Aunt Catherine to handle."

"But if we tell her that Wickham's gone mad…"

"She's especially not going to believe that, unless we prove what Wickham's been doing with all his girlfriends…"

"Hey, Will!" It was Charlie, who was always an early riser (it was five in the morning). "I got a call from Billy Crystal last night. He says he'll host at least one episode in July, and that's just one of the people willing to host!"

"Who else wants to?"

" Julia Louis- Dreyfus, Molly Ringwald, Eddie Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short, Jane Curtain, and so many others. You'd be surprised how long the list is."

"Well, they can't all host, but we can have at least four feature players for each episode in addition to the host. Tell everyone who contacted you that, and we'll chose who gets to host later."

"All right Will, but a lot of them are so excited about hosting a cable show. I'm going to get a lot of complaints."

In addition to Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, they managed to hire two other cast members: Carla Luis, who said she was a friend of Elizabeth's, and Alan Collins, who Will already knew he was not going to like. But he kept wishing to see Elizabeth for some strange reason, so he had gotten her address from Carla and decided that he was going today, whether she wanted to see him or not. He felt that if he couldn't make amends with her, he would end up going crazy like George Wickham.

**More on Wickham and what he did to Georgina in later chapters. Please remember to review.**


	9. Chapter 9

The house was small, but in comparison to most places in the south side of Chicago, it seemed to be located in a good neighborhood. There was a garden too, although there were a lot of winter weeds growing around it. To Will's surprise, the door was unlocked, so he sneaked into the house. The first room he came across was the living room. It was clean, but the coffee table was littered with newspapers, magazines, and a potato chips bag. At one side, he found a large book shelf and scanned each book one by one, trying to see if this family was well-read. He found a lot of books on acting, plays, and movies: _Acting for Beginners, Improvisation Made Easy, Broadway Show Reviews of the 1970s, Best Broadway Shows of 1981, The History of the Academy Awards, _as well as the complete works of Shakespeare and so on. There were novels too: _Jane Eyre, Huckleberry Finn, Vanity Fair, Fear of Flying, The Hollywood Wives, Withering Heights, _anda bunch of books for teenagers and young women. Also there was an encyclopedia, Webster's Dictionary, the Catholic version of the Bible, and some saved up magazines.

"What are you doing here?" someone exclaimed.

It was a girl who was younger then Elizabeth, had dark brown hair, and was dressed plainly. Didn't look much like Elizabeth at all, as a matter of fact.

"I'm here to see Elizabeth and Jane Bennet. I'm William Darcy, the executive producer of _Friday Nights at Pemberly, _and I'll be working with them."

"I'm Mary, their sister. Our mother is not going to be happy about seeing you here."

"Why not?"

"She hates comedy shows. She considers them a way to entertain viewers who don't enough taste to watch actual good programming, and she thinks comedians are just stupid people who tell jokes for a living because they can't do any other kind of work."

"Wherever she got those ideas, she must think again. Comedy is…"

"Who let you enter this house?" It was Elizabeth.

"Ms. Bennet, I wanted to discuss what happened the other day."

"Whatever you wanted to say, I already know. You had a sad childhood, your parents died when you were becoming successful, and you lost your girlfriend to cancer. That's very tragic, but that dosen't make it okay for you to be a jerk."

"Ms. Bennet, if you knew how bad my situation really was…"

"What? I'd give you permission to talk to me like that every day? Whatever issues you have, William Darcy, we better find some way to work together without getting in each other's way. And by the way, what's wrong with just calling me Elizabeth? Is that how you address everyone you work with? Should I call you Mr. Darcy?"

"Only my friends call me Will, but I could call you Elizabeth if you want to. But I'm no bad guy. If you would hear what Canadian actors say about me and my family, you'd find me one of the best people you'd ever met."

"I don't care about your family. I just want to become famous along with my sister."

"And I'm fine with that. As long as we maintain a good relationship, I'm pretty sure you'll be starring in movies soon. I'll only be involved when it's completely necessary, if that's what you want. And I won't bother your sister either. It's all strictly business."

"That's fine," Elizabeth said with a nod.

"And Elizabeth?"

"What is it?"

"Charlie likes messing with women a lot, but it's just because he likes them. So if he says certain stuff to Jane, it's just to joke around."

"All right."

"What's going on with you two?" asked Mary, looking confused.

"It's nothing," was Elizabeth's answer.


	10. Chapter 10

**In this chapter, get ready to meet Carla Luis ( Charlotte Lucus in P&P) . As usual, please leave a review!**

"Hey Lizzie!" It was Carla Luis, Elizabeth's friend since kindergarten. She was Puerto Rican and her parents ran a restaurant that served all kinds of Hispanic foods. Unlike with the Bennets, there was never a lot of pressure on Carla to become an actress; it was just something that she always wanted to do. She had two brothers and felt that Elizabeth and her sisters were like the sisters she never had. Her own parents were a little careless, but part of the reason for this was because they were always busy, and they supported their children in everything they did. In addition to comedy, Carla was obsessed with romance: romance movies, romance novels, telenovelas, she was familiar with them all, so it came to no surprise to Elizabeth when she asked, " Isn't William Darcy the most handsome man you've ever seen?"

"I don't care for his looks, Carla. To me, it's all about personality, and when it comes to that, I think he's the most arrogant man I've ever met."

"Oh Lizzie! You judge too easily. Just wait till you get to know him better. He seemed like a nice guy when I met him."

"Really?" asked Elizabeth, a little astonished. How was it that William Darcy was nicer to Carla, who could be a little annoying sometimes, and not to her?

"You should have seen him. When I started doing my impressions of romantic Spanish girls in soap operas, he thought I was being very original. Charlie Bingley was very nice, too, although you can't say the same about his sister. Now there's someone who's full of herself."

They started walking around the block to go to the restaurant when Carla said, "What's going on with your parent's divorce?"

"Nothing yet. Mom's trying to find a lawyer, and we haven't heard from dad since he left for that vacation in Europe."

"You know, Lizzie? Even when we were little, I knew your parents weren't meant for each other. Your mom was always full of big ideas and so active with your activities, and your dad was so introverted. He rarely ever talked to people."

"Remember how worried I got that one time about how they didn't love each other? I got so mad at you for not trying to convince me that they would always stay together."

"I would never lie to you, Lizzie. My theory about all this is that happiness in marriage is completely by chance. Couples never walk down the aisle fully convinced that the rest of their lives will be perfect. When my mom got married, she says that at one point, she wanted to drop everything aside and just run away, but now she's been married for twenty- five years and has no regrets. Your parents just never found happiness with each other after all those years."

"Oh Carla, I wish I could believe you, but I just can't. If you don't think you're going to be happy with someone, what's the point in going through marriage in the first place?"

"It was worse for our parents. Back in those days, you could do nothing to really bond until you got married, and I'm not just talking about sex. Men were the ones who did everything, and women just had to listen to them instead of taking action for themselves, but things have changed. Women work more often now and couples can take all the time they want to get to know each other before getting married. But there are still no assurances of happiness in marriage. When you put that ring in your finger and say yes, that's not a promise of happiness, just that you'll stick together through it all."

"But you need to be happy with each other in order to do that." At that moment, they walked into the restaurant. Sitting at a table next to the entrance were the two people they would have last wanted to see: Alan Collins and Candice Bingley.


	11. Chapter 11

It was really strange in a way, seeing those two together. Candice was just listening to music on her Walkman and Alan was reading something politics in the newspaper, but the moment they saw Elizabeth and Carla entering, Candice started saying something and laughed a lot and Alan had this look of amusement that seemed almost fake. _It must be some attempt to make us jealous_, thought Elizabeth. Alan Collins was a little good-looking, but it was his supposed "charm" that won women over. However, in reality, he was self-absorbed and even a little ignorant. He liked seeming as if he were well-informed on current events and read a lot (mainly because his father was a retired business professor), but he was more likely to be found making out with women while watching some bad movie in his messy living room.

"Why, hello there, Lizzie and Carla. It's quite a coincidence that we should all be here at the same time, don't you think?" Alan said in that voice of his that was meant to make women start blushing and respond in some flirty manner, but Elizabeth and Carla knew better. The fact that he was with Candice Bingley only made it worse. "I ran into Candice a while ago, and before we knew it, it's as if we'd been friends all along."

"He paid for everything. Even after I told him about my family's wealth, he said, 'A fine young lady like you shouldn't have to pay for a simple meal.' Isn't that so sweet?" said Candice with a small smirk which Alan couldn't see.

"So what? You should see all the charming guys I've gone out with," said Carla.

"And what about you, Elizabeth? Do you have a lot of luck with men yourself, or is it just your sister that's good at winning men over?" Candice was now giving her a dirty look, and Elizabeth knew she was talking about her brother and Jane. Younger sisters were always jealous when their older brothers found girlfriends, which she knew from Carla's reactions to her brother Juan dating some aspiring fashion designer a few years ago, but Candice Bingley was not your typical younger sister. She came from a wealthy and well-known family, and her brother listened to her every command.

"Hola, ladies! What can I get you today?" It was Mrs. Luis, who was plump and mainly wore slacks. She was good at keeping costumers satisfied, as was her husband. Carla herself wasn't very pretty, being short with unruly hair and a slightly large figure, but she was very outgoing, although she often talked about not wanting to be exactly like her parents. With Carla now talking to her mother, Elizabeth was left alone in dealing with Alan and Candice.

"Look. Whoever my sister wants to be with, it's completely her business. Just because your brother was flirting with her dosen't mean they're going to end up becoming a couple."

"Whatever. Just know that when Charlie really falls for someone, it's serious. He gets really upset if they don't like him back, so tell your sister that she better watch out." Then she turned back to Alan. "So, how does Friday night sound?"

"That would be perfect, Candy," Alan answered flirtatiously. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and walked away. Even though she didn't like William Darcy, she absolutely couldn't stand these two.


	12. Chapter 12

A month later, that phone call that Will kept expecting finally came: from his great-aunt, Catherine De Bourgh .

According to those who had known her the longest, Catherine De Bourgh was once a very kind and generous woman. She came from a poor French Canadian family and at the age of twenty-two, after graduating from a fine arts school in Montreal, she moved to Ontario and became an actress. In the 1930s, she was one of Canada's most well-known movie actresses as well as a devoted activist for the rights of French Canadians. In 1937, she helped start a boarding school for girls of lower income families who wanted to get into the fine arts in Quebec, which helped increase her good reputation.

However, despite all this success, her personal life had been very unstable. Her first marriage was in 1933, in which she had been very happy and close to her husband, but then he died of a severe illness in 1939. After this, Catherine went into a deep depression and disappeared from the public eye for a year. She was very secretive about what happened during that time, but two rumors spread about this: the first was that she spend that time getting treatment at a mental hospital, which could have included a painful psychoanalysis and shock treatment, the other was that she'd been having an affair with a close female friend. Catherine denied both of these rumors, but there had been strong evidence for both of the accusations. In 1942, after getting back into her career a year before, she married again and gave birth to a daughter. However, there were reports of her and her husband getting into violent fights and cheating by the both of them, and the marriage ended in 1945, with Catherine gaining full custody of her daughter. But despite all this, she remained beloved by Canadians, who knew her as a generous giver, a devoted Catholic, a passionate actress, and a proud French Canadian.

Nowdays, she resided in a mansion in the countryside of Prince Edward Island along with her sickly orphaned granddaughter Anne. She provided financially for Will and Georgina when necessary, but mainly they were on their own. However, when scandals occurred, they had to deal with her wrath.

"William, if Georgina wants to come back to Canada, tell her that she may, but under the following conditions," she said with a slight French accent that was most obvious when she was serious about something.

"What is it, Aunt Catherine?"

"First of all, she must stay with me for a year. She shall attend a fine private school nearby and keep Anne company. Also, she may not see any boys or men. After that affair she had with George Wickham, that would be unacceptable."

"Aunt Catherine, what happened wasn't Georgina's fault. Wickham is crazy…"

"Enough of that nonsense, William. I'm not at all happy with his recent behavior and do think that he should seek help of some kind, but he is not insane. If this has to do with the death of that poor girl, I think he's the one that dealt well with it. As for you, I think you're the one who remained troubled. You won't spend time with any women, barely get any sleep, have such rude manners in front of old friends…"

"Aunt Catherine, let me deal with my own problems. I have the show coming up in two months, and if this is your attitude about Georgina, then I would rather have her stay with me. Goodbye."

"William Darcy, don't you dare…"

He hung up. He didn't know what to think about his aunt. There were moments in which she was very understanding, but mostly, she was very stubborn and didn't want to listen to anyone. But then again, this was probably something they both had in common, even though neither of them would admit it.


	13. Chapter 13

The time came soon. In May, Jane and Elizabeth were to leave for LA to start working on the show. The Darcys and Bingleys had been traveling all over the country in search of cast members and by now, they managed to obtain five others, which was just enough. As for hosts and guest stars, it had been a little more difficult. After Charlie Bingley had informed the many stars who wanted to host on Mr. Darcy's request, some were no longer interested in appearing, however, they still had a lot of people interested, including a few unknowns who had only made a few appearances on TV or the movies at the time. It seemed like _Friday Nights at Pemberly _was going to be a success.

As the Little City stars were waiting for their flight, Jane and Elizabeth were surprised to see who had been following them:

"Katie! Lindsay! Did we really have to throw away a hundred dollars just to meet celebrities?"

"You're no fun, Mary. Mom was completely okay with it, just as long as we didn't try meeting any inferior actors."

"There's no such thing as an inferior actor, Lindsay. Either you appear on every magazine cover or you're a nobody. That's how Hollywood is." As she saw her sisters, Katie then yelled out, "Hey, Jane! Lizzie! Mom let us join you two!"

Elizabeth stood up and walked over to her younger sisters, who were carrying more luggage than was necessary. "That's impossible. This flight was reserved for us only. How could they…"

It turned out that her sisters were not the only ones who booked their flight. At that moment, William Darcy, Charlie Bingley, their sisters and assistances walked to the waiting area. "Are you serious, Charlie? We're going on the same flight as all the Little City actors? Wasn't there anything you could do about it?"

"It's all right, Will. They were having problems with one of the planes, so this was the best they could do. As a matter of fact, I'm okay with it. You've been in such a bad mood lately, so some extra company wouldn't hurt you."

"I don't care for extra company! I just want peace for at least one night! Is that too much to ask?" When he saw the youngest Bennet sisters, he got even more frustrated, saying, "Who the hell told you there could be extra people on the plane?"

"Well, Mr. Darcy, I see you didn't learn your lesson last time we spoke. Is it so hard to behave with civility around my sisters? They had no idea this would be happening," Elizabeth responded.

"I have no time for your little remarks, Elizabeth. This flight is too crowded, and there's nothing we can do about it."

Harold, Mr. Darcy's assistant, moved away along with Mary to some empty seats in the corner, where they got into a conversation together. Charlie took a seat next to Jane and immediately forgot about his friend's issues. Georgina joined Elizabeth, Carla, Lucy (another Little City actress), and the youngest Bennet sisters. Candice immediately got next to Alan, and they pretended to talk about something as Elizabeth and Carla were watching, but Candice's attention was now also focused on her brother and Jane, whom she looked on with obvious jealousy. Will was left alone to talk to one of the people in charge of flight management. When he got back, he said, "We have no choice. We're all going to have to fly to LA along with some other passengers. But they said that only the Little City Actors and us can stay on First Class. Elizabeth, your sisters are going to have to ride on the regular seats."

Katie and Lindsay sighed, but were immediately pleased when they saw that three of the regular passengers were French foreign exchange students. Mary was happier about it, since it meant she wouldn't have to deal with her sister's crazy behavior and she could just be left alone. In five minutes, the whole party was ready to go.

**I'm going to give all you readers a choice on what the next chapter will be: Would you rather see a description of the show or a chapter on the adventures of Katie and Lindsay Bennet in Hollywood? Please sent your requests through reviews or PMs.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Since I only got two requests for both ideas, I'm going to write two chapters, starting with a descripion of the show. I hope you enjoy them and please review.**

The first episode of _Friday Nights at Pemberley_ came out in the first week of June. The opening sketch was a parody of the film _Sixteen Candles_, with host Molly Ringwald and Charlie Bingley. At the beginning, she was very happy and said, "Oh Jake Ryan, this is the best birthday ever." Charlie, who was suppose to be in a daze, said, "Yes Molly, absolutely great." Then, realizing she was referring to her birthday celebration, he cringed and said, "Actually, I'm not here to celebrate your birthday. I'm here to celebrate ten years of my career as a comedian _and_ the start of my new show." Looking uneasy, Molly then said, "But why? Dosen't my birthday mean _anything_ to you, Jake Ryan? No one else has…" And then, finally realizing who he was, said, "Now hold on a minute! You're not Jake Ryan, you're Charlie Bingley, that no-good, foul-mouthed Canadian comedian! How could you think I'm that stupid?" Charlie then responded matter-of-factily, "Well Molly, you fell for the trick of thinking any guy sitting next to you with a birthday cake is your beloved Jake Ryan, so I guess that means you are stupid." Now angry, Molly stepped up, grabbed the birthday cake (which included fake candles), and threw it at Charlie, who screamed (for he was pretending to have been burned) and yelled, "You idiot! Don't you have any respect for an amateur comedian?" After this, Molly Ringwald turned around and said what would be the show's opening phrase: "Lights, camera, Friday night's in action!"

The episode recieved modest ratings, with some critics thinking the show had a promising future and would eventually become better than _Saturday Night Live_ (which wasn't doing very well at the time), and others dismissing the show as "a bad attempt at trying to bring late-night comedy back to it's golden age, which will probably not last longer than a month" as one critic for _The New York Times_ said. However, by the third episode, the show was the highest-rated cable show of the summer. The show's stars started to recieve a lot of attention by both critics and celebrities, and by August, both Jane and Elizabeth had recieved movie offers (which they had to reject).

The show differed from previous sketch comedy shows in some ways. The first involved the participation of guest players, which were mainly unknown actors/comedians who wanted a chance at their big break. The majority of the players that appeared in the first season didn't get this, but they did get some recognition, with some getting roles as extras in movies and one who appeared on _Playboy_. The other was audience involvement. When the host gave their speech after the opening credits, he or she would then say, "Any volunteers for today's show?", at which audience members would raise their hands and a spotlight would be cast on three people, who then participated in various sketches of the day.

Some popular sketches included "What Not to Do In This Situation" in which big mistakes were made during various emergencies, including one in which a neighbor (Alan Collins) was called instead of the firefighters to put out a small fire which started in a high school girl (Elizabeth Bennet)'s bedroom. The neighbor turned out being afraid of heights and fell off the ladder, killing the girl's cat (Ben Stevens, a cast member), which made the girl's little sister (Carla Luis) try to run the neighbor over with her doll carriage (at which Carla later told Elizabeth that this was one of her favorite moments in the show). Another was one that Charlie had to fight with Will in order to get into the show, which was called "Let's Talk: Lady to Lady". In this sketch, a female cast member and a female host would have a conversation which always started well, with complements to the host for her work or remarks on the cast member's starting point in acting. But then someone, usually the cast member, would say something that offended the other person, which was usually a very personal comment or question on their sex lives, appearance, or whether or not they had a drug habit. The other person would get very angry, starting a fight which usually involved a lot of profanity and near fights, which were then broken up by a male cast member, who usually made some inappropriate gesture or offer to get them to stop. Popular moments included that of then teenage star Sarah Jessica Parker and Elizabeth Bennet, in which Elizabeth said that her face looked like a foot, resulting in her being kicked by the star, who wore high heels and then tried throwing one in Elizabeth's face, and another with comedian Jane Curtain and Jane Bennet, whose fight was ended by Charlie, who had yelled, "Jane, that's enough!" to which both women responded, "Which Jane?" Charlie then said, "My loved one," which made Jane Bennet smile, but instead, he turned to Jane Curtain and kissed her, but she slapped him and yelled, "Bingley, you fool! I'm married!" Jane Bennet then slapped him as well and said, "You said you loved me!" and the fight was turned towards him instead.

This was the show, at which the Bennet sisters really enjoyed working in, but the good times nearly came to an end because of an encounter with William Darcy's worse enemy: George Wickham.


	15. Chapter 15

In the second week, Mary, Katie, and Lindsay only had a week left of their luxury Hollywood vacation. They stayed at a five-star hotel in which they were attended by a maid and two British butlers (with whom Katie and Lindsay loved flirting with), enjoyed time at the pool and a fancy restaurant where they got unlimited meals for free (an arrangement made by Charles Bingley), and best of all for Katie and Lindsay, meeting many celebrities both at Pemberley Studios and on the glamorous streets of LA.

"I can't believe you, Katie! Of all the celebrities you could have gotten autographs from, you choose Eddie Murphy. What the hell do you think Mom will say about that?"

"He said he liked my dress, and besides, all the real actors in the show are complete snobs. I think I'm starting to see why Jane and Lizzie didn't want to become like them."

"Why don't you two just shut up? You'll be in enough trouble already after Mom sees how you spend almost all the money she gave you for the trip on clothes," said Mary, who preferred quiet places like bookstores and cafes, and wasn't interested in Katie and Lindsay's star searches. One of the British butlers named Joe, who was a little reserved himself, kept her company during part of the trip and would often tease her sisters, which she found amusing, as well as the fact that he enjoyed a variety of British novels.

"Well, I'm going to find real actors right now," said Lindsay firmly, to which Katie said, "You're not going without me," and both girls took off, leaving Mary alone with Joe and Roger, the other butler.

"Should we follow them?" Mary asked Joe.

"Certainly, Miss Mary. God only knows what kind of mischief those little brats will get themselves into."

At the corner of one street, a large limo was parked, but no photos were being taken, so Katie and Lindsay took this opportunity to get a look at the unknown star. It was a very tall, lean, and charming young man, who thanked his driver before stepping out of the vehicle. He wore a black suit, which had the two girls completely marvelled. "Hello there, young ladies," he said to Katie and Lindsay, in a rather strange accent. He was mainly taking notice of Lindsay, which made Katie get upset. However, he looked completely dazed, as if he didn't even notice Katie. He put his hand around Lindsay's hair and said, "Is this glamorous red hair natural or dyed?"

"Natural, of course," she responed proudly, not the least bit intimdated by his gesture, which was slighly scaring Katie.

"Well, that's nice. I hate it when ladies don't appreciate their hair. I believe it's a gift from God, especially after what happened to a dear girlfriend of mine?"

"Listen, you weirdo. What kind of game are you trying to play here?" said Katie, who decided this guy was bad news.

"Katie! Let him speak. Go on. I'm Lindsay Bennet, by the way."

"Thank you. I had a girlfriend who was a beloved star in Canada. However, she had been fighting cancer ever since she was little, and at one point she lost all her hair. Unfortunately, she died at the age of twenty-two. You look a lot like her."

"That's... nice, I guess. Who are you, anyway?"

"George Wickham. I'm a film producer trying to look for stars for my latest feature." At the mention of this, Lindsay's face was glowing. "I'd love to work with you! Do you have a card or something?"

"Of course, Miss Bennet. Here it is," he handed it to her with a smile. "I have to get going now. I'm trying to look for a William Darcy."

"Why, he's not that far away from here! As a matter of fact, Pemberley studios is in the next block," Lindsay exclaimed.

"Excellent. I hope I shall see you again soon, Lindsay Bennet."


	16. Chapter 16

**I'll admit that I'm not very happy with the last two chapters, so I hope this chapter will make up for it. In case you're wondering about the length of the story, it will be a little long, with about 25-35 chapters, and when I'm done, I might write a prequel, which I'll give more details about later. Anyway, please enjoy and review more often :) **

Elizabeth was the last one left at the dressing room. To celebrate the success of the show, William Darcy had actually decided to have a cast party, which both shocked and delighted everyone, that was, except Elizabeth. When he announced this, he'd given her a look that clearly said, "It's okay if you want to come, but it would be better for me if you didn't." She could not understand this. What made William Darcy dread her company? Why could he never look her straight in the eye and tell her what bothered him so much. Jane and Carla had begged her to come, but she politely refused, saying that she was going to check on her sisters. However, what she really wanted was some time alone…

"Hello? Is anyone here?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

"This is the women's dressing room. I'm the only one here and fully dressed, but wait till I come out," yelled Elizabeth (the dressing room had no sign, which might have explained why this person was trying to find someone there).

As she opened the door, she was astonished by who was standing right in front of her: a tall man who looked like those movie stars that were always appearing on magazines, complete with dark hair and eyes and perfectly white teeth. He smiled at her and said, "I'm George Wickham, and you are?"

"Elizabeth Bennet," she answered while in a slight daze.

"That's strange. I just met another Miss Bennet on my way here. Her name was Lindsay…"

"You must have met my younger sister!" She exclaimed without realizing quite how excited she sounded. She wouldn't blame Lindsay if she had fallen head over heels for this guy. He seemed so polite, and he referred to her silly little sister as Miss Bennet, which she found quite charming. He then spoke again, saying, "I was here to see William Darcy, but since it seems that you're the only person here, why don't we go somewhere together?"

"I'd love to! I mean, if it's okay with you. I might be taking up too much of your time, and you seem like someone that has a very busy schedule…"

"I'm my own boss, Miss Bennet. I can do whatever I want. Anything you request would be my pleasure to give."

They ended up at a café located in a bookstore. People all over the place were reading books and newspapers along with their drinks, which reminded Elizabeth of her father for a while, but thinking about how he was happy in Rome (he wrote this in a recent letter) made her less sad. A few women and teenage girls put down their reading materials when they caught a glimpse of Wickham, looking just as dazzled as Elizabeth had been a while ago. However, Wickham ignored them all and just drank his coffee, which pleased Elizabeth.

"So let me guess: You think William Darcy is a complete ass," he said after a moment of silence.

"You must have read my mind," Elizabeth said with a smile. "How do you know him and why do you want to see him in the first place?"

"We have some history together. We knew each other ever since we were little boys. His great aunt was actually my father's benefactress. My grandfather use to work as her butler back in the thirties, and seeing how bright my father was, she decided to pay for his education and living expenses for the rest of his life. He entered the Canadian military, and was a high ranking officer for a while, until he got severely injured during a mission. I was three at the time and my mother had passed away after my birth, so from that moment on, Catherine (that's Darcy's great aunt's name), became a second caretaker for me."

"That's interesting. Did you and Darcy get along back then?"

"Sort of. We had moments when we were very close, but Darcy had always been jealous of me. Even when he was little, he seemed to think that Catherine preferred me over him. At the time, I didn't blame him. His father was an alcoholic and his mother slept with anyone she could get into her bed, so he didn't really have anyone else to look up to. He spend most of his time with that clown Bingley, probably only because he had a much easier life than him. However, he preferred to avoid me sometimes, most likely because he thought I knew too much about his life."

"So when did all the problems begin?"

"After we did _Teenage Comedians_ together. Whenever he saw me having a good time with one of the girls on the show, he would come right out and tell me that I was trying to get them all to hate him. Then his parents died and it all got worse. We started working in this late night show afterwards and he started showing interest in this girl named Elena. They started dating, but I sometimes liked spending time with her, which made Darcy jealous. So one day, he told me not to even look at her outside the show."

"Sounds like he was a control freak."

"He was. But then, supposedly after he tried to have sex with her, he found out that she had Cancer; Leukemia, to be more specific. He told her that after what happened to his parents, he didn't want to be around what he called a "walking tragedy". The poor girl was so heartbroken, and to make matters worse, on New Year's Eve 1979, she found him hanging around these strippers, and that ended their relationship. Of course, I was there to make it all better for her, and she became my girlfriend. But then, her illness got worse, and she died two years later."

"Did Darcy ever do anything to make it up to her?"

"I don't know. He never seemed to have gotten over her death. However, now that I've told you about his true behavior, perhaps we could…"

He was silent after this, and Elizabeth guessed the true reason why he was here.


	17. Chapter 17

**In case you didn't know already, I started writing the prequel to this story, called "Never Letting Go". If you'd rather have me continue that, please let me know, but if you'd rather have me continue with this, let me know as well.**

Meanwhile, everyone was enjoying William Darcy's party. That was, except for Will himself. He had spent the first hour waiting for Elizabeth to come. When it became clear that she wasn't going to show up, he went to the bar, where he ordered four cocktails, hoping that a good drink would make him forget about her, but the more he drank, the more depressed he felt. It got to the point where the bartender told him to go home and get some rest because he had been crying hysterically. By that time, Jane Bennet and Charlie had showed up, and they volunteered to take him over to the hotel. Over there, he slept for about an hour before he woke up from a bad dream. After that, he spend the rest of the night watching movies, and by two in the morning, he was joined by Georgina, who insisted they watching some of her favorite childhood films, so they watched _Mary Poppins _and _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_. However, watching these films reminded Will of those sad days when he was the only one caring for his sister, and by the time they got to the part in _Willy Wonka _with the song "Pure Imagination", he had used up two boxes of tissues. Normally, this would have worried Georgina, but knowing that he always got like this when he was drunk, she decided it was best to just let him be.

Around six in the morning, Charlie and Jane entered their hotel room. Georgina had nearly fallen asleep in Will's lap, but at the sound of the door opening, both of them were fully alert, and Will was suddenly completely sober. "What happened, Charlie?" he asked.

"Elizabeth is missing," was his response.

"We already checked in our apartment, but we found nothing, not even a note," Jane said, sounding completely anxious. "It's not like her to just disappear like that."

"Did you check with your sisters?" Will asked her.

"Yes, but they have no idea either," Jane responded.

At that moment, there was a loud knocking on the door. When Will asked who it was, the only answer he got was, "It's me, you stupid bastard!" Deciding that it was just some drunken guest, they tried to ignore it, but the more frequent it got after stopping for two minutes, Will decided it was best to confront the person. When he opened the door, he was beyond shocked. The man was only half-dressed and by smelling his breath, you could tell that he was completely drunk. But the biggest shock of all was who this man turned out being: George Wickham.


	18. Chapter 18

**Thanks for all your reviews! **

Elizabeth's memory was a complete blur when she woke up. To make matters worse, she immediately noticed that she wasn't at her apartment. Jane and Lizzie both shared a master bedroom that was still messy since their move, the floor littered with jeans, underwear, books, paper, and even records, and their wall was full of pictures of the celebrities they had met at _Friday Nights at Pemberley _(all of which were taken by Jane, whom their father said could have become a professional photographer if her mother wasn't so determined to make her an actress). This room, however, looked like its owner was a neat freak, with the clothes in the opened closet placed in order according to color and not a single crack or stain on the wall or fancy carpet. The television was on, playing what appeared to be the film _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_, which Elizabeth hated ever since someone back in high school had dressed up like the transvestite and sung that annoying song at the school talent show (for which the guy ended up getting suspended for a week). She got up to try to change the channel, but realized she was out of luck when she noticed it was being played on a VCR. In between hearing all the terrible music from the movie, she tried to remember what had happened last night. She went to a bar with Wickham after their conversation at the café, that was for sure, but after that, she couldn't recall anything. She must have gotten very drunk if her memory was this bad. Then, she realized for the first time that she wasn't wearing any clothes at all. How far had they gotten, she wondered in horror. Did she at least use protection? "How could I have been so stupid? Am I really that much like my mother and Lindsay after all?" She wished Jane or Carla were with her right now, or perhaps most of all, her father. Someone who had more experience with these kinds of things and would know how to handle this situation.

"Lizzie! Lizzie! Are you in here?" It seemed to be a chorus of voices: most likely Jane and Georgina's. Then this huge sense of relief swept over her. She immediately put on an old t-shirt and shorts that she found in a laundry basket and opened the door. "Jane! Georgina! You don't know how relieved I am to see you guys!" She exclaimed as she put her arms around her older sister.

"Lizzie, we've got to get you out of here," said Jane in a sudden panic.

"Why? What's going on?" Elizabeth asked, wondering what could possibly make this situation worse.

All of a sudden, they heard Georgina dropping something in horror. "it's worse than I thought!" she yelled.

Elizabeth took the item from the floor. It was an album which looked old but had mainly newer-looking pictures. As she looked through it, she saw nothing wrong at first. There were a bunch of pictures of young women who looked around the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. However, as she looked more closely, she noticed that they had some things in common, including having either dark or auburn shoulder-length hair and similar jewelry items, including a heart-shaped necklace and small,white-colored earrings. Also, they were wearing clothing that showed off a lot of skin and body one picture gave it all away, which was of a dark-haired girl who was asleep on a large bed completely naked but wearing both the necklace and the earrings that the other girls wore. Around the bed, there was what appeared to be a red wig that looked as if it had been worn shortly before the picture was taken. In another page was a picture of that same girl, only this time, she was wearing the red wig.

The girl looked exactly like Georgina Darcy.

"Georgina, what is this? Did you know George Wickham?"

Georgina nodded, her eyes full of tears. "Last year, I hung out with him for two months. He tried to convince me to have sex with him, but I refused. So one night, he got me drunk and injected this combination of heroin and cocaine into my system and raped me. A photographer found the picture of me naked and it appeared in this adult magazine. Wickham explained it by saying that I was a prostitute who wanted a thousand dollars in exchange for sex, and everyone believed him. Word got around about how William Darcy's sister was a prostitute and the Pemberley network recieved a lot of threats from the public and the media. My brother believed me, but my great aunt didn't know what to do about all that, so she ordered Will to take me and the network to the states,where no one would be aware of the scandal and we could lost the bad reputation."

"But why does he do this? Is it as some kind of revenge towards your brother?" Elizabeth asked, remembering all the stuff Wickham had told her last night.

"Yes, He never stopped blaming Will for Elena Depardieu's death, and according to him, he kept seeing her spirit in young women who looked just like her. That explains the album."

She couldn't believe it. Why had she been so stupid? Falling for a man just because he had charm and good looks without a single idea of who he really was had never occured to her, and yet, she had hung out and had sex with him like a fool. She looked at Jane, who just looked at her in a very concerned way. The only person who could do anything about this, it occured to her, would be William Darcy, the man she had despised for months. Could everything between them possibly change?

**Stay tuned. The conflict is actually far from being over. This is just the point in which Elizabeth finds out who Wickham really is. When it ends, as well as the time it takes for her to fall for Darcy, will actually take several more years.**


	19. Chapter 19

It ended as fast is it started. By the time Elizabeth, Jane, and Georgina made it back the other hotel room, Wickham was gone. When they inquired over what happened to Will and Charlie, they said that he just couldn't confront them and left immediately, and the whole matter never got completely settled.

Life went on as usual. Elizabeth kept her distance from Will when working and Will did just the same. The final episode of the first season of _Friday Nights at Pemberley _aired at the end of September. At this point, it was the highest rated show on cable television and was nominated for the 1985 Cable Comedy Awards in four categories, winning for best new show. The rest of the year served as a vacation for the cast, and many took full advantage of it. Will and Georgina spend all of October and November in Paris, Charlie and Candice spend three months touring Europe, and were joined for a month by Jane and her father (who had stayed at Geneva after settling divorce matters at home in September). He found Charlie to be a rather friendly if not "slightly odd for someone like his daughter" and approved of their relationship. However, when Jane wrote a letter to her mother about him, this was her response: "You already threw yourself into a worthless entertainment industry, and now you want to get together with one of those people? You'd have more luck dating one of those hard rock musicians." But it seemed to Jane that their mother was a little pleased with their new-found success because in that same letter, she asked to meet "that William Darcy fellow" in a trip she planned to take on Christmas. Carla traveled to Puerto Rico along with (to everyone's surprise) Alan Collins. No one knew exactly when they started to bond, but by September, they started acting more civil around each other, and no constant questioning from Elizabeth would reveal their true relationship status.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth spend most of this vacation alone; just traveling around the state of California. Mary, who was nineteen and had completed a year at city college, joined her when she was at San Francisco. One of the most interesting things that happened to them included at least two celebrity parties in which Elizabeth was invited as a special guest, but both ended with at least half the guests getting either competely drunk or high, and one of them resulted in five arrests for drug possession. So even though it meant spending their nights at hotels watching late night shows, they decided on no more parties.

Around this time, Elizabeth started having a recurring dream: she would be in a very beautiful meadow, surrounded with flowers, sunshine, and a large evergreen. In this meadow, she always saw the same girl, who had shoulder-length auburn hair, a heart-shaped necklace, white earrings, and a white summer dress. She was short and thin, with an almost sickly appearance, but she was still beautiful, and everytime Elizabeth saw her, she was singing in French. The first time she had the dream,it ended with the girl putting a crown of flowers in her hair, without a word exchanged between the two of them. After this, she would either praise Elizabeth or give some remark about the difficult but still happy life she had lived, making Elizabeth realize that this was someone who had died not that long ago. She also learned that she wasn't really a girl, but a young woman close to her own age. But the last night she had the dream, when the young woman spoke of William Darcy, it all made sense to her. When she woke up, she wondered if it was possible if an angel could also be someone's demon, because that was what Elena Depardieu was to Darcy and Wickham. In the dream, she seemed so happy and at peace, but when she spoke of her life, there was this hint of sorrow in her voice, as if she knew she was causing other living people pain but couldn't help what she was doing. The last thing she had said was,"You belong with Will." Elizabeth was religious to a certain extend, but she had never been sure if there was really some kind of life after death. All the talk of an afterlife in all her years of attending mass didn't make much sense to her, but now she understood that perhaps how life was after death had something to do with whether or not you you were willing to let go of all the pain you had to go through, and if you couldn't do so, it served as a sort of purgatory, if not hell, to a spirit. As happy as Elena seemed in her dream, Elizabeth knew she was still suffering in some way. Regardless of whether this was suppose to be real in a way or not, Elizabeth knew it was a sign that she had to help Darcy learn to let go.

That morning, there came a letter from Catherine De Brough, asking her to come visit during Christmas.


	20. Chapter 20

Christmas seemed to have arrived earlier than usual. However, that was to be expected, because the minute Isabella Bennet heard that her daughter was invited into a former accomplished "real actress's" home, she was begging Elizabeth to have Catherine De Bourgh allow additional guests into her home. It took a lot of persuation and a few compromises, but Catherine finally agreed to arrange for Mrs. Bennet and her three oldest daughters to stay at her Prince Edward Island mansion.

Winters in Canada were usually extremely cold, but Mrs. Bennet had never bothered to find this out, thinking that the weather would be similar to the way it was in Chicago. So when it turned out to be a near zero degree day and she only wore a long overcoat and scarf, she yelled at her daughters for not having informed her about this before their arrival. But since the taxi drive turned out to be short, she immediately forgot about this and turned her attention over to the sight of the beautiful, Victorian-style mansion in the middle of all that snow, making it seem as if they were in a winter wonderland. "Just think about it, Jane and Lizzie! Maybe someday, you'll both live in a place like this if you get rich enough." All of a sudden, Jane, Elizabeth, and Mary were like young girls again, with their mother going on about the importance of being polite and elegant in front of respectable society and how good first impressions could mean future benefits and exceptionable treatment , the same lectures she always gave them before attending theaters, fancy restaurants, and those expensive summer camps all those years ago.

There was no need to ring the doorbell. As soon as they approached the door, an elegantly dressed woman wearing a white dressing gown, plenty of jewelry, and high heels opened it up and looked them through with a small smile, almost similar, thought Elizabeth, to the one she occasionally saw on William Darcy. "_Bonjour_, or rather, _bon soir_, to all you ladies. It's a pleasure to have so much company on Christmas." As soon as she said this, Jane beamed at the sight of Charlie and Candice Bingley approaching them. "Merry early Christmas, Jane!" Charlie said before kissing her twice. Candice, who had gotten slightly less jealous of Jane over the last few months, embraced her and said, "Glad you could make it. De Brough can be such a bore sometimes." To Elizabeth and Mary, however, she only offered a handshake and a "nice to meet you" for Mary, but offered a more nicer greeting to Mrs. Bennet, saying, "You're just as pretty as Jane, . Not bad for a future mother-in-law," to which she responded, "Don't get your hopes up. My daughter has gotten plenty of suitors over the years, so she has a lot of options."

Everything in this mansion seemed large and expensive with a combination of many modern and old-fashioned things, including a piano from the nineteenth century, furniture that hadn't been replaced since Catherine bought the mansion as a summer home in the 1930s but looked as if it had just been bought, a new Apple computer alongside a seventies style TV (Catherine said that although she loved film, she wasn't very fond of television, which got her on better terms with , who had a similar opinion), and an old-fashioned radio which still worked well after years of not being used. However, the Bennet girls' favorite room was the library, in which every wall was covered either with shelves or European paintings. They found many first editions of the best books of the twentieth century, beautifully illustrated editions of many classics, and many books in French, which were in a seperate shelf. In the middle of the room, there was a beautiful table made of glass with a vase of roses and tea set on it alongside a record player.

After the tour of the mansion was done, everyone gathered in the living room, where small dishes were served along with hot chocolate and wine. Charlie went up to Jane and said, "Let's go into the game room," which was where a pool table as well the TV and computer were at (Catherine didn't believe in having technological "entertainment devices", as she called them, in rooms where company met up). Candice and Mary joined them, but when Elizabeth got ready to go, Catherine said, "Stay here. I want to talk to you." To , she said, "Would you mind going with the others?" to which she unwillingly agreed to. As soon as they were all gone, Catherine turned to Elizabeth and said, "How well do you know William, Ms. Bennet?"

"Personally, we only know each other as coworkers. Our relationship dosen't go anywhere beyond that. However, I'm afraid I know a little too much about his past."

As she said this, Catherine looked at her in a way that showed both amusement and shock. "Do you know about his parents?"

"Yes. I was told they had a very bad relationship with each other and it had a strong inpact on your nephew's childhood and how his sister was brought up."

"Do you know about my role in raising them?"

"A little. I know William spend some time with you along with George Wickham and your grandaughter, and that there was a lot of tension between him and George as they grew up."

"How about William's past relationships with other women and girls?"

"I know about Elena Depardieu and what happened to her, but I don't know much about any other relationships he had."

Catherine sighed. "I'm afraid that William never knew how to truly behave like a man when it came to relationships. When he was a teenager, he would bring in as much as four girls in one weekend into my house. No matter how much I tried to find out about them, William never gave anything away about who they were or what he did with them. When he started in the television business at seventeen, it got worse. According to Charles and George, he spend almost every night at night clubs, picking up any woman who was interested. It nearly got worse when his parents died, but then Elena came along and he really seemed to change. I honestly loved that dear girl, but she always seemed a little afraid of getting too close to people. I knew about the cancer before William did because she believed I would be able to handle the news better than he would."

Until now, Elizabeth had been stunned into silence. She had always guessed what a troubled past Darcy must have had, but this still came around as shocking news. Catherine spoke a lot about her nephew, but very little about her own past, which from the few bits and pieces she picked up from Georgina and the Bingleys suggested that she may have had quite an interesting past herself. "Could you maybe tell me a little more about yourself, if you don't mind?" she asked a little timidly.

Catherine gave her that small smile. "Only if you agree to tell me more about yourself and your family."


	21. Chapter 21

**I'll no longer be working on the prequel since there's not enough time for me to be working on too much stories. However, I've recently joined Goodreads, so if any of you are members, please let me know more about how it works and how to find friends.**

"Every ten years, Will and I always make three wishes for what we want to happen by the end of the decade," said Charlie as they were all gathered in the game room. Mrs. Bennet, who was less than pleased to be separated from the astonishing Catherine De Bourgh, looked through a shelf with a lot of videos, and Candice was trying to teach Mary how to play pool, so everyone was occupied in some way.

"So the first time you did this was in 1965, right?" Jane asked.

"Yes. We were only seven years old, but we thought we were such know-it-alls and were sort of convinced that the next decade was going to be like in that old cartoon _The Jetsons, _or at least I was, so one of my wishes was for everyone in the world to have a flying car. The other two actually came true: for there to be a man in the moon and for TVs to be in color like in the movies, so I turned out not to be that unrealistic."

"We never watched any of those cartoons when we were kids because our mom was convinced that those types of programs made kids become stupid, so we never had a lot of high expectations for the future, but we always thought we were going to become award- winning actresses because our mom always told us that."

"Ms. B, did you really not let them watch cartoons?" Charlie asked her mother.

"My name's not Ms. B. I'm divorced now. If I'd had a choice, I wouldn't have even owned a television in the first place with all the good films in the cinema they could have watched, but my husband thought they could get at least a couple of useful stuff out of it, even though he probably hated television more than I did. But if you ask me, all the things they had for children back then was mindless trash. First, they had those ridiculous shows featuring animals, like that horse called Mr. Ed and even Lassie. If I wanted my kids to see _Lassie_, I could have just taken them to the movies to see the real thing, the way I did when I was younger. Then it got worse when I had Katie and Lindsay, because they aired that show with large singing creatures called _Sesame Street_. Why something like that would even be considered educational , I could never understand. And don't even ask me about _The Muppets Show_. I think that was the worse of them all. As for the cartoons, I made sure my girls never turned on the television during Saturday mornings. We left for downtown as soon as possible."

"What about shows like _The Partridge Family_ or _One Day At a Time?_" Candice asked.

"I think those were the same as the children's shows, except with themes aimed towards kids approaching high school. Really Charlie, what kind of movies are these: _Animal House, Caddyshack, Young Frankenstein, National Lampoon's Vacation_. Why not watch more sophisticated stuff?"

"There's sophisticated stuff there. Catherine has almost every Oscar-winning film in the other shelf," Charlie said.

"Well, why didn't you tell me there was another shelf?" She then went to another corner, where there were all the films that Catherine had selected.

"Is your mother always like this?" Charlie asked Jane when he was sure Mrs. Bennet wasn't listening.

"She can be worse. If Jane and Lizzie wouldn't have been in a successful show, she might have never even wanted to set eyes on you all," Mary said, speaking up for the first time.

"That's right, and if I could make one wish for the next ten years, it would be to make my mother less stuck up," Jane said.

"How about a wish for the world? That's suppose to be the main focus," Charlie responded.

"All right. How about this? I wish for an end to the cold war. With all the stuff that happened this year in Eastern Europe, that might be possible."

"That's a good one. No more nuclear weapon paranoia or Communism would certainly make the world a better place. And your next wish shall be..."

"Another one for myself. I want to get married and have the relationship my parents never had."

Charlie looked closely at Jane. "You know, if we were to end up together, you don't have to worry about a bad marriage. Every marriage among us Bingleys have been long and happy ones. There hasn't been a single divorce in the family."

Candice smiled at the lovers. "Well, my wish is for Charlie to mature up before getting married." Mary joined in by saying,"And I wish for Jane to not be too nice to her future husband." By the time Mrs. Bennet had found a movie to watch, the four of them were deep in conversation, revealing their greatest hopes for the future.

Elizabeth never thought she could be this good with first impressions. Within five minutes, she and Catherine were talking as if they were old friends. Elizabeth told stories about her home in an urban neighborhood that was sandwiched between the poorest areas of the inner city and the middle class areas closer to downtown; how their mother had never truly accepted it as home and had big dreams for her daughters; her father's constant impatience with her far-fetched ideas about how to raise their girls and how he tended to be very passive, spending most of his free time at home reading;how she and her sisters spend the majority of their summers at camps for training aspiring actors. Catherine was especially interested in the latter, and told Elizabeth to recall her experiences in the camps. She ended up telling her about the first camp they attended was run by hippies who encouraged a relationship between the arts and nature, using animals and wild plants in performances and how Jane tried to bring home a rabbit that one of the intstructors had given her to use as part of what they called "animal improv". This and the fact that Elizabeth got a mild sprain in the leg after trying to ride a horse had gotten her mother so upset that she went up to the head of the camp and yelled,"What the hell are you trying to teach these children: theater or to join one of your filfy communes? I payed thirty dollars so my daughters could be one step closer to winning an Oscar, not so my Lizzie would nearly get killed by one of your wild brutes!" Another interesting time was when she had been ten years old and they had went to downtown Chicago to attend the Goodman Theater and a special performance from the Second City, which was when she and Jane started to become interested in comedy. However, the camp had to end early because some of the older attendants were discovered to have been selling heroin while in the city, and although they were banned from the camp, no charges had been pressed, which upset many parents, including the Bennets.

"Do you believe you learned anything useful from those camps?" Catherine asked her when she was finished.

"Yes. Although not all of our experiences were extremely positive, we learned pretty much all the stuff we could have learned by attending a performing arts school the way you did."

"And like you, I was lucky to have that type of training. The owner of the factory where my parents had worked payed for part of my tuition. What other things did you and your sisters learn?"

"Jane learned singing and photography, Mary got into creative writing and playing the piano at school, and Lindsay took dancing lessons. We were all encouraged to read by both our parents, although my mother preferred to have us read plays and my father just thought we should read classics and the usual girl literature, as he called the more modern books we read."

"Did any of you learn drawing?"

"No. None of us ever had the talent for it."

"That's a shame. I was very into drawing and painting when I was at school. That picture next to you is one I did when I was at the arts school of a close friend named Madeline."

It was a beautiful picture. The young woman was shown wearing a blue dress, her blonde hair in a ponytail, and was surrounded by many trees and flowers.

"When my first husband died, she was very supportive and become my only close companion at the time. In fact, I almost believe that what we had between us was like..."

At that moment, Anne De Bourgh, who had dark hair and a very frail but somewhat pretty appearance, walked in. "Grandmother, William and Georgina called. They're on their way here very soon.


	22. Chapter 22

**Only a few more chapters left! My next idea is writing a Jane Austen crossover, which will take the main heroines and their love interests into a popular reality show. What I'd like to ask you all is where it should take place. Respond by responding to my latest poll or sending ideas through reviews or PMs.**

It took a few minutes for Will to show up, but he finally did. At first, he just looked at Elizabeth and then back at his great-aunt, as if trying to decide who he should speak to first. When he finally gained the courage to speak, he said, "I see you two have become friends rather quickly."

" It would be more appropriate to say that I've found Elizabeth to be a rather agreeable young woman, William. You know how I feel about friends," Catherine responded rather sternly.

"That's strange, considering all she seems to do with me is argue…"

"This seems to be a matter between you and Elizabeth. I shall leave you two alone right now," Catherine said, leaving the room.

Will turned back to Elizabeth with the smile that resembled his aunt's. "Why is it that you're getting along better with my old-fashioned aunt than with me, Lizzie?"

Elizabeth was surprised to hear William Darcy calling her by her nickname. "For starters, since when am I "Lizzie" to you, Will?"

"Don't start with your games. What's wrong with me? I'm just a successful single Canadian who wants the best for his sister. Georgina already loves, and apparently, so does my aunt. However, I still sem to be the bad guy to you."

"Actually, I worry about you. You seem to have some serious demons to let go, and I think you need me to do that for you."

" So that's what it's all about. My aunt tells me that all the time, and despite how she acted around you, she can be quite stubborn and hard to deal with."

"Why are you here?"

"Because I'm tired of you hating me, that's why."

After he said that, he turned on the old fashioned radio. Rather appropriate for the moment, it played an old romantic r&b song. Then, rather awkwardly, he asked, "Would you like to dance?"

"You don't seem like the dancing type, Will."

"I'm not, but if this will win you over, then I'm more than willing to do it."

It turned out that Will was quite a bad dancer, nearly stepping on Elizabeth's toes twice, but it was still surprisingly fun. None of the music played was from the last five years, but both agreed that when it came to romantic nights, they much preferred the classics.

"So, are you asking me to be your girlfriend?"

"If that's what you want, then I'd love it."

"Then you don't know me at all, William Darcy."

"What more do you expect me to do?"

"I don't know; maybe a kiss!?"

And so it happened. With one kiss on the lips, they were lovers, feeling as if they were the only people still standing in the world, as if they were those crazy young people in love in those movies of the time. The whole night passed, and they fell happily asleep in each other's arms in one of the guest rooms. No one tried to check on them, not even Catherine, but as she was getting ready for bed, she said to herself, "I think William's finally found the one for him."


	23. Chapter 23

**Please check out my new poll in my profile! I would really appreciate some votes.**

The two weeks flew by quickly, and before all the young people knew it, it was 1986. They'd all had a wonderful time at the De Bourgh home, getting a little too open about their romantic desires and wishes for the new year. But it had to end sometime. Now, it was back to business. _Friday Nights at Pemberley _was to start its' second season, so the entire month of January was devoted to booking hosts, writing and rehearsing sketches, and a lot of keeping up with current events, the big one being the Winter Olympics being hosted in East Germany, which was the center focus of the first two episodes.

Two major events happened during this time. The first was the announcement of Carla and Alan Collins' engagement. Last year, those two wouldn't even talk properly to each other, and now they spend all of their free time together, talking nonstop about their planned wedding in Puerto Rico in June. "It's going to be so lovely, Lizzie! All those years of reading romance novels could never have prepared me for this," she told Elizabeth one day.

"What happened with your little motto about how happiness in marriage happens by chance? Are you really sure about marrying Collins if you two don't even have much in common?"

Carla laughed. "Don't be so silly, Lizzie! Yes, we're complete opposites, but look at it this way: I've actually known Alan longer than any other man and seeing how he is, he would never be in a happy marriage with anyone else. As for me, I don't think anyone other than Alan has ever called me beautiful before."

"So is this all because you don't think either one of you will ever have a chance at marriage?"

"Eventually, we'll grow to really be happy together. I mean, look at you and Will. You hated him back then and now you've fallen head over heels for him. We're not that different after all."

That was the other major thing that happened. Will and Elizabeth's relationship was no secret, either between their coworkers or the press, and one issue of _People_ magazine published a story about them, in which the two of them went public about everything that brought them together. By then, Will's reputation in Canada had completely improved and Georgina was able to go back and live on her own in Toronto.

However, unknown to them all was that Wickham had never lost touch with Lindsay. After the incident with Elizabeth, he sent Lindsay a note in which he told the same version of his story that he told her sister, and she fell for it all. When her mother and older sisters left for Canada in December, he started meeting up with her and discussing a movie deal with her. By January, he had given her a leading role. Lindsay immediately told this to her mother, who was more than happy to have another daughter in show business. "I raised you girls so well! Now I only have to work on getting Mary and Katie to improve so they can become famous as well." Her father was less pleased about it and told her that it was best if she stayed in school, but after getting a call from his ex-wife about how this was more important than receiving a diploma, which in her opinion, would never really get anyone very far in life, he decided to no longer get involved with his daughter's life, thinking that Jane and Elizabeth could help her if anything went wrong.

Eventually, it did.


	24. Chapter 24

In June, Lindsay had all her things packed and took the first plane to California. The first plan had been to meet in New York, but then Wickham said that it was one of the worse "good" cities, stating that it was overcrowded and had bad weather. LA would be a much more interesting place to make a movie.

Since she couldn't afford to stay at a nice hotel because her sisters refused to give her money (they wanted her to attend Carla's wedding, but she told them that she refused to spend her summer in a third-world country, despite knowing perfectly well that it was a territory of the US), she had to stay at a run-down motel in the bad parts of the city. The place smelled like someone was smoking pot, and although there was cable, it was obviously stolen, because it went out every ten minutes. Also, the one channel that could be seen well aired old sex-themed movies. To Lindsay's surprise, one of them was _The Lonely Lover_, which had stared her mother. She had spent her whole life thinking that her mom had been an actress worthy of an Oscar if it hadn't been for that scandal, but now that she was watching one of her films for the first time, she understood why her acting career had ended so quickly. Throughout the entire film, her mother (she was nineteen when the film was made) would speak in a very high-pitched voice and would constantly say things, "Why, how lovely!" or, "Oh heavens no!, the latter said whenever the male lead got too sensual around her, such was when they got in bed together and in one scene in which he caught her in a bath tub, completely surrounded by bubbles. If that film had been made in the present, it would have absolutely taken things further, which Lindsay was relieved that it didn't. "Why have I been looking up to my mom so much? Am I really that stupid?" she said to herself before the door flew open.

"Damn it, Lindsay! Is this the best you could do?" It was Wickham, looking as if he just stepped out of a bar or had been doing drugs, which Lindsay saw happen sometimes among the kids at her school who came from the worse neighborhoods. At home, though, it rarely happened, so she wasn't really prepared to deal with this.

"This is all I could afford, George. Anyway, when does filming start."

Wickham responded by laughing hysterically. "I can't believe it! Of all the girls I've done this with, you're the only who fell for it!"

"Done what? George, what are you talking about?"

"Just look at yourself. You're seventeen, extremely stupid, and too confident in your acting abilities. Summer camps? One-hour acting lessons? I attended an actual school for all that training from the time I was seven years old! What would I want with someone as inexperienced as you?"

"Then why am I here? Just so you can insult me?" Lindsay yelled, starting to get very angry.

"You're here because I think you could make a good lover."

At that moment, Lindsay held out her hand and slapped him. "What the hell do you think I am? A prostitute? A slut?"

"That's the problem with you girls nowdays. Ten years ago, all those so-called feminists were more than willing to let out their sexuality to any guy who asked. You should have seen all the girls I got back then. Today, all that just say no crap and political propaganda caused by Regan and his little friends have brought the world back to the fifties. Girls have too much "dignity" and won't do things that they think will mess with their bodies."

"Who cares about that? It dosen't give you the right to manipulate other girls."

"I have a good idea. Let's just go ahead and get married. Since that seems to be the only way I'll be able to get into bed with you, or with any woman, as is the case now."

Lindsay started packing all her stuff. She had to get out of there. If she could get away from Wickham, it would have to be now when he was going on with his drunken jibberish. She almost made it to the door, but Wickham had eventually gotten his senses back, because he blocked her way. "You're not going anywhere tonight. Tomorrow, we're leaving to Vegas and getting married."

She kicked him in the legs and ran out of the motel room while he struggled. She ran into some men smoking something strange, a woman dressed in very provocative clothing, and a teenage boy who shouted rude comments at her, but she got away. But by the time she made it to the nearest bus stop, she realized she had only twenty dollars left and no place to go.


End file.
